This date is responsible for global warming.

Okay, it's not that simple, but the best by, use by, sell by dates play a surprisingly big role in America's biggest waste problem.

I'm Brooke Butler, and in this episode of What Do I Do with This?

We're dishing out the leftover problem.

Turns out, there are more than 50 different phrases printed on food packaging in the U.S.. So, honestly, it's no wonder so many of us end up standing in the kitchen wondering whether something is actually unsafe to eat or just not quite at its best anymore.

That confusion is exactly why California recently became the first state to standardize food date labels.

The new law gets rid of consumer facing, sell by dates and replaces them with clear language.

Best if used by for quality and use by for safety.

New York lawmakers have passed similar legislation and several other states are exploring the same approach.

The idea is pretty simple.

If everyone - from manufacturers to grocery stores - is using the same wording, consumers can make more confident decisions, throw away less perfectly good food, and cut down on unnecessary food waste.

As it turns out, all of us arguing with food in our refrigerators is part of a much bigger problem.

America throws away an incredible amount of food every year, roughly a third of the food we produce, and a lot of it isn't moldy leftovers or mystery Tupperware.

It's perfectly edible food that gets tossed because date labels are confusing.

Portions are too big, produce isn't pretty enough, or we simply forget it hiding in the back of our fridge.

And when food ends up in a landfill, it doesn't just disappear.

As it breaks down, it releases methane, a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change.

Meanwhile, millions of gallons of water, acres of farmland, and the energy it took to grow, package and transport that food are wasted right along with it.

And if you're thinking, well, now I feel guilty about throwing away the yogurt last week.

Don't.

Food waste is about a lot more than what's happening in our kitchen.

The way our food is grown, marketed, sold and distributed, can make waste almost inevitable.

The good news?

People across St.

Louis are finding ways to change that.

Okay, my name - I'm looking at your right?

Amir Tibbs.

So.

All Hands on Deck is a all volunteer nonprofit.

It's community focused.

We rescue food from lots of big box stores and distribute it free in the community.

We host what's called a food share, whose shares are different, and I see a food pantry and a pantry.

They may say, pop your chart and just give you a box of food that another organization may have pre-packed a week or so ago.

At a share we rescue food and distribute same day.

So all of this bread is fresh bread that was rescued today.

Our goal is to be more sustainable.

We want to create a circular economy where food isn't wasted and people are seen and valued.

So that's why we don't require ID.

That's why we don't say you have to be in this area.

We want to let people know that this is a community.

Everyone is welcome.

The food is here for you if you need it.

Amir says the average people attending these food shares are just that average people.

And with grocery prices continuing to rise, more St.

Louisans are looking for these opportunities to stretch their budget.

But it's not sacrificing quality.

As a former city food inspector, safety is a top priority for Amir.

And although stores don't necessarily advertise their donations to All Hands on Deck.

You can see the labels coming from stores like Costco, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and sometimes specialty stores.

So it's no wonder that lines sometimes reach 100 plus people.

Each of who receive a playing card and wait for their number or face to be called.

Once everyone gets through the line, you can take a second pass.

Encouraging nothing goes to waste.

The potatoes, they don't look the best on the outside, but we cut them and they're perfectly fine inside.

So by trying to give it to other nonprofits who may not have, they can make French fries our hash brown.

And it doesn't go to waste What do you think or hope might change in the future to where this service is no longer needed?

Well, I think what I see is that it's not that there's not enough food.

The problem is distribution.

There's a lot of food in some areas and not enough, especially you good healthy foods in some areas.

But a lot of the chronic diseases that some minority communities or less resourced communities face is because of the diet.

Oftentimes, seniors, like the ones who live in this building, City Farm, are forced to have to purchase food from dollar stores Often it's processed foods, canned goods.

And it's hard to get a really good healthy meal.

Whereas at the share fresh produce, organic items, fresh dairy, some whole grain items You just never know who you're helping or how it's helping.

96 00:05:22,113 --> 00:05:22,363 Everybody has their own story, and everybody's story is unique.

The truth is, our food system is remarkably efficient.

Today's farms produce more food than ever while using fewer workers, and in many cases, fewer resources per pound of food than previous generations.

But of course, there are trade offs.

The food system doesn't just affect what ends up on our plates.

It affects our soil, our water, our air, and the ecosystems around us.

And because every decision from how food is grown to what happens after it's eaten, is connected, the environmental impacts can be surprisingly complex.

But there are three big factors to consider.

One.

Pollution.

Modern agriculture depends on fertilizers, fuel, and transportation to keep food affordable and widely available.

But when excess fertilizer washes off farm fields, it can move through rivers and streams and eventually reach places hundreds of miles away.

One example is the massive hypoxic or dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.

The pollution doesn't start there.

It actually originates throughout the Mississippi River watershed including farms right here in the Midwest.

Natural resources.

Producing food requires enormous amounts of land, water and energy.

Agriculture accounts for about 80% of the fresh water consumed in the United States.

And while healthy soil is one of farming's most valuable resources, crop land can lose soil to erosion much faster than nature can replace it.

Ecosystem disruption.

You've probably heard the phrase save the bees.

That's because pollinators, wildlife, and entire ecosystems can be affected by pesticide use, habitat loss and that's where food waste enters the conversation.

An estimated one third of the food available in the United States never gets eaten.

Organizations like All Hands on Deck help.

But when food can no longer be rescued, there's another option.

Yeah.

So New Earth Farm is a community composter.

And that means that we do composting for residences and businesses.

So we're not, like your backyard garden or even like a small, like, neighborhood community garden.

And we're not an industrial player either.

So we sort of fill a gap in that sense where if you're somebody who wants to compost at home, but it doesn't work for you, you're also not a big corporation that's going to contract with the industrial player.

That's who we serve.

Can you just go like that?

Clap How much would I need to pay you to try a bite?

When people keep these at their house, where do they usually keep them?

Like in the kitchen.

I mean, it's got a lid, so it's not going to be, like, super stinky.

Yeah.

They do a really good job keeping the smell out.

People don't tend to be able to smell it, but it is kind of bulky.

So people keep it in their garage, in their basement, in a back hallway and usually just fill it up from other containers.

So, there was an interesting study that was done by Botanical Garden and the NRDC, and St.

Louis Earth Day, in conjunction with the City of St.

Louis, and they found that 667,000 tons, I believe that was the number of food is wasted in our region each year.

Landfills are about a quarter municiple solid waste landfills are about a quarter compostable food waste material.

when food goes to landfill, it does not have access to oxygen, which means that it has to break down what we call anaerobically.

And that anaerobic decomposition produces methane instead of carbon dioxide.

So it's a significant impact on our greenhouse gas emissions.

Oh it's hot steaming.

Ooh.

That's an old actually isn't steam.

you can see this tortilla here is completely or this Pita, maybe naan, It's completely molded through and that's what's the the steam.

Yeah.

Because it's not actual steam.

It's little mold particulates.

Yeah.

Mold spores What I will say with composting is that it is one of the few things where individual action has, a really significant impact.

And that's because the number one place where food waste comes from is the home.

one interesting misconception is that, meat and dairy and things like that can't be composted.

if it grows, it goes is kind of the rule.

So it was ever alive.

It was ever part of, a living organism, whether that's fish bones or, apple peels or, rotted mango or a Dorito.

It can all be composted.

there's a lot of distrust in the system, especially in Saint Louis recently with, you know, where is the recycling stuff going?

No, I think that's a big piece of, positive feedback that we get from subscribers is that they know that the material that they're sending to us is going to actually go to the place that it can be recycled.

The food waste will be recycled into compost.

It will be added back to our soils.

I think we have a really incredible network of organizations and individuals that really deeply care about this work.

About circularity, about recycling, about composting, and, want to promote it Organizations can't run we don't exist without, composting.

And it's like circularity being something that St.

Louisans value.

If composting is one way to deal with food after it's no longer usable, another question is how do we prevent food from becoming waste in the first place?

Because sometimes waste has less to do with food safety and more to do with expectations.

For decades, the food industry has trained us to expect food that's perfectly shaped, perfectly colored, perfectly packaged, and available year round.

But those marketing standards can have unintended consequences.

Fruits and vegetables that look a little different, even when they're perfectly nutritious and safe to eat, may never make it to store shelves.

And that's not the only challenge.

large scale food production has helped make food abundant and affordable.

But it also comes with environmental tradeoffs.

In livestock production, for example, concentrated animal feeding operations, known as CAFOs, allow producers to raise large numbers of animals efficiently, but they also create concerns around waste management, water quality, air quality, and greenhouse gas emissions.

That's why sustainability isn't just a farming issue.

It's increasingly become a responsibility shared by producers, retailers, markets and consumers alike.

More businesses are looking at ways to reduce waste through food rescue programs, compostable packaging, reusable containers and donation partnerships.

And consumers are rethinking their own habits from buying only what they need to supporting local growers.

Places like farmer's markets sit at the intersection of many of these ideas.

They're not a complete solution.

But they offer a different model that encourages people to think not just about where their food comes from, but also how much they buy, how it's packaged and what happens if it doesn't get eaten.

What was the rest of the question?

I'm kidding.

I'm kidding.

Our goal here is to not only foster community and have a neighborhood space, that welcomes everyone, but also brings these local food and connects these farmers who are in more rural areas to urban areas in St.

Louis.

We started off as just 30 farmers on a back parking pad behind the pavillion.

Based on not only talent, but demand we have now grown to 130 vendors on Saturdays and hosting 10,000 shoppers on Saturdays on average.

It was really important to us that as we welcome more and more folks into this green space that we love, that we are also doing more waste diversion because people make a lot of trash.

There's also a lot of ways for what you purchase from a farmer or, a vendor that can go straight back to that business.

So whether it's the containers, you get your produce in, your egg cartons, the glassware that you get, your jams, jellies or even lemonades or pickles.

All those can go right back to the vendor.

Some of them even offer discounts if you do that.

So that you can see these items recycled even within a season here at the farmer's market.

So our farmers have also developed really great relationships with each other.

So that if Zach from Friedel Farms has a bunch of peaches that are molding or going bad or otherwise can't be sold, they get connected with some of the pig farmers and donate all of this produce so that their animals get to also feed off of kind of the riches of the farmers market.

So in so many ways, it's it's integrated.

In every aspect, a cyclical system, very cyclical, even with the vendors.

Yes.

And if you look at a bunch of kale at a grocery store versus a bunch of kale that let's say Dang Good Produce sells on Saturdays, it's the same price.

But there's actually way more kale at the farmer's market, and it's fresher.

And it came straight from here and wasn't shipped all around the world.

And there's minimized carbon footprint.

I think that it does encourage more meaningful shopping.

Sure, you can still get distracted by pastries at the farmer's market, but maybe you're not getting distracted by bulk pastries at the farmer's market.

You're walking through a green space with really curated food options that allow you to naturally choose food that's really healthy for you and healthy for the environment, too.

You're still here?

Well, the episode's over.

You can go now.

It's a little chilly in there, isn't it?

But if you want more information, you can go to ninepbs.org slash What do I do with this?